Case Study: Stitches Online Marketing Campaign and Website
I really dislike shopping. The people, trying on clothes in a strange place, figuring out what size I need…it’s just a never-ending headache for me. When I do shop for clothing, however, Stitches is one of only three places I’ll go.
The Stitches website and marketing campaign is ok, but I would personally like to see them match their clothing and the hip, warm atmosphere of their stores. In real life, Stitches staff are friendly, helpful, and know a thing or two about fashion. They are eager to help you find different sizes or create looks, but if you’re with something else, they’ll leave you to it and just help you switch sizes and return the clothes to the racks.
In short, they’re intuitive to the needs of the customer, and I’d love to see this reflected in their online marketing. I hope they’ll find some helpful tips here, and if not, I hope that you’re able to get some good ideas or thoughts for your own website.
Stitches Email Marketing
One of the emails I received from Stitches looked like this:
They use ‘Add Sale to Your Style!” as their subject line. Now, I know who this email is from, and remembered signing up for it, but a subject line like that made me think twice about whether it was another spam mail or not. Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to be clever!
I guess my real issue with the tagline/subject line is that, when I buy something on sale, I don’t want it to look like I bought it cheap! I want it to be my dirty little secret. I DON’T want my clothing to look like I bought it on sale!
I think they could have come up with something far more effective. Even “Stitches Fall Fashion Sale” or “Fall in love with Stitches’ fall fashions” would have been better.
Once you open the email, you get this:
Looks good, right? Amazing sales! (To be honest, I can’t remember if it gave me a choice between text and html emails when I signed up, but if it didn’t, it should! They should at least add tags to the images so I can figure out what the email is about without downloading the images.)
My biggest complaint with this email is that I want to be able to click on the various sales advertised and immediately start buying! Unfortunately, when I click on the $3 knit tops and leggings ad, I get this:
And then this:
And when I click on the “graphics tees” ad, “graphic hoodies”, and the “amazing jeans” ad, I get the same thing. If I had wanted to click through for the faux leather jackets, I’d have discovered they disappear completely on the site, with no hint as to where they may be.
It’s really too bad they missed the sales opportunities in their email marketing campaign. I would love to see them code each ad separately, so that when I click on one, I can find the sales items instantly. Now, as soon as I land on their home page, I find myself thinking “where are they? Is it only certain styles? Are they in a different section?” Even if they linked them directly to the category pages, it would boost their conversions.
Website Marketing and Usability
I thought they might have coded the ads separately on the website homepage, but alas, these weren’t clickable at all. In fact, if you look in the bottom left corner of the main graphic, you’ll see there is a choice of 4 main home page graphics. This was difficult to spot and impossible to use. Clickable flash would have been a much better choice. This is prime real estate that could be boosting the interest in their products!
Well, I shouldn’t say none of the images weren’t clickable. The ’6 Reasons To Dream of Jeans’ article? When you click on the image for it, you immediately get a new tab with the main graphic and are able to page through a series of images depicting girls in various pairs of jeans. This doesn’t help me because I can see what I want, but still have absolutely no idea where to find each pair so I can order it.
Also, a bit of text about which body shape each style was best for, the benefits of each type of jean, or even how to tell the difference between the six styles would have been informational and given me a reason to look through them.
Category and Product Pages
I really liked their navigation and how, when you click on a category, the navigation stays open so you can easily switch between them. The text could have been bigger and easier to click, but it is one of the best designed features on the site.
The item pages like their graphics tees page was nice and clean and the products really pop out at you. That being said, I’m a little confused as to why there are jeans advertised above the fold in that section, or why they’re there at all really. The naming of the different products would have been a great spot for them to show off their creative side. Naming 10 shirts ‘graphic T’ tells me essentially nothing. Imagine: If I tell you they have a graphic T you should buy, would you know which one I meant? How about if I said the ‘Disgruntled Money Bags T’?
Have a look at their Monopoly themed t-shirt. There’s no text. I have no idea what the shirt is made out of. I don’t know if it’s going to end up being a dry clean-only item, and while we’re on the topic, why would it suggest belts to go with a t-shirt, when I’d be much more likely to buy a pair of matching jeans? Suggest belts on the jean product pages.
One company who does product pages astoundingly well is Think Geek. Their descriptionsare so much fun I’ve actually clicked through the different products just to see what they’d written. Stitches wouldn’t have to get that creative with their product pages, but information about the products written in a chic, hip voice would definitely improve their sales and help the customer connect with them a bit.
Overall, when I wander around on the Stitches website, I feel like I’m window shopping, rather than actually wandering in their store.
Their shopping cart software is mysteriously not working. Not sure why, but it was probably in my best interest. It could have been a very expensive night and my credit card would’ve been feeling the weight. (PayPal option would be great folks! Not sure what payment methods you offer, or if you have a secure checkout because, well, it doesn’t say and I can’t get to the checkout page.)
Their URL structure and titles are also quite unfriendly. When I want to bookmark certain products…say I’m watching to see when they go on sale…The titles tell me nothing about which product I bookmarked, there are no unique descriptions, and the URLs tell me nothing. So please, use referral strings, but for the love of pete, please do something with your titles! Even when they’re shared on social networks, there is nothing decent describing what I’m sharing and no way to manually change it myself.
Next point: When I want to buy a product, let me see the entire product…back, sides, top, bottom, whatever. Stitches does an excellent job giving me a close up, but I don’t want something dorky on the back of the shirt. The way it’s set up now, I can’t tell.
Social Media Marketing Strategy
This part was quite fascinating to me:
Remember that email I got? Well, if you click the Social Media icons at the top, it will take you to each one of its social profiles. On their website? NONE of them are clickable! I was quite disappointed when I had to fish the email out of the trash to find their social profiles. (The bottom of the page had a Facebook like button…so I guess my initial statement was a little inaccurate, but c’mon! If you’re going to have buttons above the fold, make them usable!)
Stitches On Twitter
Stitches does have a branded Twitter profile and its user ID matches the site URL. Two points for them! This is important because it makes them relatively easy to find and you know you’ve got the right one when you get there.
They’re interacting a little with other Twitter users, but they’re using the account mainly with Twitterfeed to tweet out links to teen fashion trends. I admit this made my heart break a little. For a store that’s so friendly and good at connecting with girls and guys 16-30, they’re not showing it here.
Most of their links are to Teen Vogue articles. Why are they not creating this stuff and hosting it on their own website? Where are the links to their great sales? Their fashion advice? Regardless, they’re generating a lot of ad revenue for someone else’s site. (This could be because their site isn’t working, but personally, they’d be better off to get the site fixed and tweet more of their own links than sending everyone elsewhere.) In short, their account needs balance and a human touch.
Stitches On Flickr
The Stitches Flickr stream is quite small, but considering the fact that it’s only been in use since April, I expected it. Unfortunately, like their emails and photo shoots, they don’t tell me what clothing the models are wearing, where to find it on their site, or even where I can find these photos online so I can see them in use. All it says is “BTS 2010″, which again, tells me nothing.
There are tons of opportunities here, and Stitches have missed many of them. I would love to see them embrace the power of this medium! What about customer photo shoots? Creative contests? Ten pairs of jeans you can put with a particular shirt that’s on sale that month? This last one could be great because they could put together ‘fashion packages’, so that when someone clicked on it, it would add all the clothing items from a picture or set of pictures to the shopping cart.
The Stitches YouTube Channel
I was quite happy to see Stitches is on YouTube! My first thought was that there were going to be great interviews with their fashion experts with tons of tips on stretching your wardrobe, the latest trends, makeup tips, or even just videos on *gulp* teen issues.
Well, they don’t have any of that, but they did upload two ad kind of things. Again, I’d love to see information in the description about the clothes shown off in the ad, links to the items, what their ‘Back To School’ collection was based on, what the trends are this season…something! I’d like to think that people would subscribe just to see their ads, but unless they take lessons from Old Spice, I just can’t see that happening…at least not people who will buy their clothing.
Stiches Facebook Fan Page
With almost 20K likes on the Stitches fan page, there is tons of marketing power here! They’re doing a pretty good job of using it too. Some people are uploading pics of themselves in the hottest Stiches fashions. Their video and notes sections have groups of ads (more than their YouTube channel) and they let you win tickets for a local event. They put up images of the sales ads, but again, nothing is clickable and there aren’t any links to where you can find these items.
Sadly, while fans are speaking up and sharing their love of Stitches, the company is doing very little interacting with its loyal customers. Even a quick note back to some of their customers would be a great investment. Also, why is their fan page opening to their wall when the hook for their visitors is on the free tickets page? Why not create a mini-ad page for people to land on?
Stitches did happen to reveal some information about their website on their Facebook page: Their site is down (duh! Lol) and the online store is being rebuilt. This is great news! I’m a little confused as to why they’d disable the online store before the new one is ready, but I’m hoping there’s a good explanation because they have to be losing a fair chunk of change. I’m also quite confused as to why they’d continue with their online marketing campaign. I thought the idea might be to convince people to go to their brick and mortar stores, but I can never find the fashions they advertise online in their stores!
Closing Thoughts On the Stitches Online Store and Marketing Campaign
If I could give any suggestions to Stitches at all, I’d strongly suggest that they study their competitors. What do they do well? What’s working for them? What isn’t working? What aren’t they covering?
They need to figure out exactly who their target audience is and find out what’s most important to them. Generate content they’ll find interesting and valuable, even if it’s just a collection of funny cartoons or jokes about the issues they face.
I’m going out on a limb here, but I think teenagers really want to see themselves in fashionable clothing. They want to feel welcome and accepted and they want to feel popular. This is where Stitches marketing power will come from. This is where Stitches will really be able to break their industry open and begin to claim a fair chunk of the market share. In fact, I’d love to see them come up with an online app that people can upload pictures of themselves and virtually ‘mix and match’ outfits. They could even use the images of schools, malls, or other popular hangout locations in the background.
They need to hunt out complementary businesses and figure out ways to team up and offer deals and opportunities their competition hasn’t. Music, beauty, magazines, electronics…there are an unending number of ideas and possibilities here.
Stitches needs to shake their corporate image and start to stand out.
Their site is also impossible to find in the search engines. They are in dire need of some SEO and some ad campaigns if they hope to revitalize their stores and making some serious profit.
Again, I wish Stitches well and hope they make use of their online marketing, whether they find and use the information in this post or not. (Which reminds me: If Stitches hasn’t got any sort of buzz monitoring or Google Alerts set up, they need to. They need to figure out what’s being said about them and use the information to their advantage.)
I also hope you were able to follow me through this audit/case study and pick up some ideas you can use in your own ecommerce stores.
Is Personalization Changing Your Game Plan?
The Web is changing. Big surprise, right? Well, it might be for those who aren’t prepared or fail to see what’s going on.
(Credit)
In recent months, Google has introduced social and real time results to its regular SERPs in addition to an increase in personalization. With more and more people out of work and bending under financial strain, new websites and competition are popping up everywhere. The big question is what are you doing about it?
In terms of basic SEO, there isn’t much besides keeping up with the changes and doing what you can. Social Media is definitely starting to play a much larger role in many marketing plans. In fact, the latest study suggests 66% of government agencies have even got onboard. But what about your marketing plans and the strategies you create for others? Are they changing with the introduction of personalization and an increase in competition?
The Internet Marketer’s Guide to Battling Personalization?
One thing is for sure, sites that don’t cater to the user are going to be left behind, if they haven’t been already. Site owners need to start considering how they’ll go the extra mile in order to make the user feel at home and become a favorite. On the other hand, webmasters also need to keep it profitable. No easy task, for sure.
Usability
Usability has become almost a trend word, but there really is something to it. After all, the more easily I can navigate your site and find what I want, the more money I’m likely to spend. You might be thinking your website is already quite user friendly, but like someone who smells his own body odor for too long, it can be hard to spot the obvious.
Having a usability expert is one way to fix this. And, if you choose a good one, you’ll find that he or she has the uncanny ability to spot things that most of us don’t think of until they’re fixed. If you can’t afford one, but would still like to make improvements, talk to a partially technologically-challenged person and have them test your site.
Sit down with them at the computer and watch as they go through your website completing various tasks. This could include purchasing an item, signing up to your RSS feeds, finding specific information, and many other seemingly simple actions. Take note of how long it takes them to complete each thing, where they look, and the items they click on. You’ll find that doing this with a few people will help identify trouble spots. (Bonus tip: When they first open the site, ask them what the site is about and what they see first. This can be extremely powerful information!)
Conversion Optimization
Often confused with usability, conversion optimization can be a long, drawn out process. Experts in this field use analytics, live tracking, and many other components and tools to figure out what types of visitors use your site, what they’re looking for, and where they’re going. From there, they will create defined paths customized to meet the needs of each type of (profitable) visitor in order to boost conversions.
While this is no easy feat, there are steps you can take on your own to improve conversions. Site testing, analyzing your own analytics by creating custom events, and using tracking codes to find out what your customers are up to, what they like, and what they don’t like. Then, you can make the appropriate changes and test it out.
Site Optimization
While this is technically part of usability, SEO, and conversion optimization, I think it’s important enough to deserve its own category. This covers the technical side of the website and makes it work more efficiently and more accurately. In my eyes, this breaks down into two areas:
Data Optimization — This is a big one for sites with large amounts of information that are accessed by the user (For example, online catalogs, complex structures with numerous departments). These techniques use various structures and code systems to organize this data, recall it faster, and more accurately.
Web Design Optimization — Techniques such as combining or separating images into PSDs, improving the focus on particular elements, and improving the loading of the CSS through Javascript make the site faster, improve usability, and boost conversions.
These things might not help you overcome the effects of personalization and an increase in competition, but they can certainly help. If nothing else, you’ll be able to make the most of the traffic you do get.
So, what are you doing to help counteract personalization and improve the performance of your site?
The Modern Version of Customer Service: A Note to SEO Naysayers
The entire concept of people squabbling over the death or validity of SEO is absurd, completely ridiculous, and a waste of valuable time on all sides. If I hear someone tell me ‘they don’t use SEO because it’s evil and the Google gods will smite them and wipe them from existence if they use it’ one more time, I’m going to need one of these:
You know what? If you own a website, you’re already using SEO. It might not have the most effective tactics on the planet or be one of the worst methods to ever hit the WWW, but it’s still SEO. Don’t believe me? Answer these questions and assign one point for each ‘yes’ answer:
- Does your website have a URL?
- Does your site contain text?
- How about images? (one point for each pic)
- Do you give visitors the option to explore your site via navigation?
- Does your site contain any links to any other internal or external page?
Here’s the deal: if you scored ’1′ or more on this test, you’re using SEO. And if you own a website and you’ve called SEO evil, denounced its existence, or said it’s dead, you’re an idiot. Congratulations.
URLs, text, images, navigation, links and many other features are all part of SEO. They’re just done well, poorly, or disgustingly.
SEO isn’t about title tags, anchor text, or what color hat you wear. It’s not dead because, last time I checked, it isn’t breathing, it doesn’t grow, and doesn’t have life. SEO isn’t about how good your buddies think you are, or whether you made it onto some list somewhere as the biggest marketer on the planet. Let’s knock off the bullshit and just cut to the nitty gritty shall we?
SEO is about usability. Period. It’s about making your website, content, ad, or whatever easier to use for both crawlers and humans. It’s about getting found for the right things and providing ‘good customer service’ from the moment someone finds your site until he leaves. It’s no different than keeping the aisles of your store clean, the shelves and racks neat and someone at the cash register.
Got it? Good! So, now that we’ve got that sorted, let’s look at the two basic ‘rules’ of SEO.
If something makes your website more user friendly, easier to explore, and more effective, do it. If it makes the site impossible to identify, difficult to use, complicated, and just plain nasty, or if it clutters up the Web and becomes a pain in the Equus Asinus, it’s a bad thing. Don’t do it. No! Don’t! That’s enough of that silliness.
Now, I know this has been harsh, but it’s for your own good.
If I can’t use your site, or have to fight with you to sell me something, I’m just going to go elsewhere and so will everyone else who might happen to stumble across your site while searching for ‘pink and purple polka dotted squirrels with eating disorders, bald tails, and bad attitudes’. (If your site provides information on pink with purple polka dotted squirrels with eating disorders, bald tails, and bad attitudes, you’re in luck.)
Whether you like it or not, you have to cater to your customer, regardless of whether it’s a human customer or a bot.
I think most would agree that SEO is constantly evolving and changing. It needs to in order to continue serving visitors of all kinds effectively. But, so long as websites exist, SEO will always be there in some way, shape, or form.
Done deal. Can we get on with it now?
